Helensville community action to fight drugs

Helensville has been selected as the site for a Community Action on Youth & Drugs or CAYAD project to combat illicit drug use.

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Associate Health Minister Jim Anderton said today that Helensville has been selected as the site for a Community Action on Youth & Drugs or CAYAD project to combat illicit drug use.

The Maori Health Services arm of the Waitemata District Health Board has been selected to be the service provider at the new site.

Jim Anderton today met with representatives from CAYAD teams from around the country at a national meeting of providers being held in Auckland.

He told them that the Labour Progressive government's war against drugs is multifaceted.

"At one level, we are aiming to reduce supply by toughening up the penalties on the peddlers of dangerous drugs and their precursors. At another level, we are increasing treatment services to reduce the harm drugs cause.

"And at a third level it is a campaign aimed at reducing the demand for drugs and that, of course, is where these community programmes come in," Jim Anderton said.

The CAYAD project initially started in the late 1990s with 5 sites. Based on the success of those sites, the Progressive Party sought support for new funding to enable the coalition government to establish 15 further sites around the country.

A range of data sources were used to select the CAYAD sites, including Police apprehension statistics, information from treatment centres, school drug suspension and stand-down statistics and Ministry of Social Development data on social deprivation and youth unemployment statistics.

The locations and service providers of all 15 new sites have now been announced.

Ends

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